


I'm Gonna Get to Know You Better

by graciegrace



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christmas, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, and Allura being wonderful, and Christmas paladins, edit: took out shallura but they’re still great friends!, everyone being friends, gratuitous amounts of Christmas fluff, this is a shameless excuse for platonic kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 11:17:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8977483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graciegrace/pseuds/graciegrace
Summary: 7 kisses at Christmastime or Lance puts up mistletoe everywhere, which may or may not have been a huge mistake.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My first full Voltron fic! This was started in August as an excuse to settle my need for platonic kisses and Christmas fluff, and here we are now. Enjoy!

It all starts when Keith walks into the main living area one day and there's a giant-ass fir tree in front of the window. He's just come back from training and all the other Paladins seem perfectly content to sit next to the massive conifer that, by all means, should not be inside the castle.

Keith is confused.

"Um?" And that's all it takes before Lance somehow (how he always does this, Keith doesn't know and doesn't want to know) pops up right behind him and grins.

"It's Christmas!" he practically yells in Keith's ear, and thanks for that, Lance, he totally didn't need to hear on his right side the next few days. But all he can manage is a dumb, "What?"

Lance raises his eyebrows. "How long were you living under that rock? You seriously don't know what Christmas is? I should've known that you wouldn't know about Christmas. Trees, presents, cookies, you know, Christmas?" He gives Keith a disapproving look, which grates his nerves.

"Of course I know what Christmas is, you idiot. What I meant was like," he wildly gestures around the room with the tree and paper snowflakes glued to the window, "why?"

"Wow, rude. But at least you know what it is. That would be like, totally weird if you didn't, unless you were Jewish or something which is totally cool-"

"What Lance means is," Hunk interrupts, clapping his hand over Lance's mouth, who immediately started squirming against him, "is that it would be around December on Earth right now and we wanted to celebrate! What could be better for bonding than sharing Christmas together?"

Keith sighed, but seeing everyone's excited faces, he relented. No one can resist Hunk's smile and he doesn't think he's seen Pidge look so happy not surrounded by robots. "Fine, whatever."

"Brighten up, Keith, it'll be good bonding for us." Shiro flashed Keith his best dad-smile and he felt his resolve disappear. He slumps down on the couch between Hunk and Shiro and looks around the room at the gaudy decorations with snowmen and gingerbread houses.

"Do we have to have the lounge look like this, though?"

Lance beams at him from across the room. "Sure do. And we're not NEARLY done yet. We still have to decorate the tree and make gingerbread men and hang mistletoe everywhere-"

"What?" Keith quirks an eyebrow, and sees everyone staring at him. "What?" he demands.

"You seriously don't know what mistletoe is?" Hunk asks, and Pidge giggles under her breath, Shiro lightly swatting her arm.

Allura takes that moment to walk in the room. "Neither do I," she offers, smiling at Keith. It makes him feel a little better, but at the same time she's a ten thousand year old alien princess; she wouldn't know anything about Earth. "What is this 'mistletoe'?"

Lance opens his mouth to, presumably, flirt with Allura but Pidge speaks first.

"It's a little plant, well really more of a parasite, that you hang from the tops of doors. When two people stand under it they're supposed to kiss." Seeing Allura's look of bewilderment, she just shrugs. "It's an Earth thing. And also I'm entirely against it but Lance and Hunk insisted."

Allura laughs. "Well I, for one, would be glad to partake in your strange Earth rituals." Keith just sits there with his mouth open.

"People kiss under a parasite?"

This time it's Shiro who starts snickering, Pidge elbowing him in the side, but they both end up quietly laughing.

"Yeah, Keith, it's called fun and the spirit of festivity. It's what people who don't have a major stick up their asses do," Lance says.

"Language, Lance." Shiro looks unimpressed but Lance just shrugs.

"I'm just saying."

Conversation moves on from Christmas to cookies to food in general and soon everyone's ready for dinner. As they trickle out, Keith is stuck staring at the massive fir in the front of the room.

He turns to Lance a few steps in front of him. "By the way, how the quiznak did you get this thing in here? In a castle? In space?"

Lance shakes his head. "It's the magic of Christmas, Keith. Don't question it."

Keith just rolls his eyes at the boy and follows the rest of them to the dining room.

\---

The mistletoe had gotten obnoxious fast. There was at least one piece in every doorway (seriously, how did he get this stuff in space?) and several in other inconvenient places like above the dining table and on the couch in the lounge.

Everyone seemed to make the silent agreement that Shiro wasn't obligated to participate, but that didn't stop him from bending down and placing a kiss on top of Pidge's head one time when they were walking into a room together talking about technical stuff. Pidge looked at Shiro like she would her own father just then, and although Keith wasn't one for cute, that had to be one of the most adorable things he'd ever seen.

Lance, on the other hand, had already managed to catch Allura there not once or twice, but three times (Keith suspected this was the actual reason for all this decorating) and each time garnered himself a roll of the eyes and kiss on the cheek from the princess.

Keith hadn't avoided it completely himself, even, and at one point ran into Hunk while exiting the kitchen, who gave him a brotherly kiss to the temple with a smile.

And while Coran commented on the peculiar rituals of Earth, Keith considered that maybe this was what Christmas was like for normal families.

\---

Level 5 on the Gladiator was kicking Keith's ass. He didn't like admitting it, but it was quite obviously true. He'd definitely need more practice in order to beat this thing.

He took two quick sidesteps to the left and barely dodged a thrusting sword from the machine. Keith groaned and desperately tried to hit the machine with a quick swing to the side, but of course the robot was better than that. In a minute he was knocked off his feet with a sword pointing at his throat.

"End training sequence."

Keith wiped sweat from his forehead before turning to Shiro, who had been watching the battle to see how Keith was improving.

Shiro frowned, his head tipped to the side a bit. "You're too impatient. You have to wait until it's weak and distracted to make a move instead of impulsively swinging at it." His mouth turned up into something more encouraging, almost like a smile. "On the bright side you've been getting a lot better. I'm not sure any of the other Paladins could've handled that as well as you did just now."

Keith nodded and scooped up his jacket, swinging it over his shoulder as he made his way to the door- and colliding with Lance in the process.

"Ow! Watch where you're going!" Keith said.

"Me? You were the one who crashed into me!" Lance yelled. He soon just rolled his eyes. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine." Keith brushed himself off and offered a hand to help Lance onto his feet. But Lance didn't let go of it. Instead he glanced up, hand still gripping onto Keith's.

"Um?"

The boy turned and grinned at him, then pointed upwards. Of course, by his luck, they had crashed into each other in the doorway, right under the mistletoe.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Of all the people and places-

Lance didn't seem to hear his objection, and instead bent down on knee in the most unnecessary princely way that Keith could imagine. And kissed his hand.

Lance stood up, smiling, and Keith only realized he was staring when he heard Shiro poorly trying to conceal laughter in the room behind him.

"Shut up!"

\---

It was a rough mission, like a REALLY rough mission. Because all missions were rushed but most didn't include the near-scrape with death for three out of five team members. Everyone seemed to be a mix of anxiety, disbelief, and relief, and honestly Lance knew exactly how they felt right now.

It ran much of the usual gamut- planet-hop until you find a distress signal, investigate said distress signal, accidentally attract the attention of Zarkon while trying to save the enslaved population, fighting a giant, man-eating, evil robot. Except this time it was robots. Five of them, to be exact. What were they gonna do? Form Voltron? One big robot against five big robots. Bad odds. Be separated? Five small robots against five big robots. REALLY bad odds. There was no winning in this situation, except that somehow they did. Pidge had come up with a plan and wordlessly explained said plan to Keith over the communicator screens and by some sort of miracle he understand and without anyone else having a clue what the hell was happening Keith used his gianty Voltron-sized Bayard to knock out one robot and then more robots until there were none robots. Then they saved all the aliens and everyone rejoiced and while there was unfortunately no victory parade for them, it was still nice.

So here they all were, climbing out of their giant sentient lion robots and performing a nice mix of high fives and tears of relief. Mostly from Lance. Almost all from Lance actually, but hey, somebody had to keep the team's spirits up and congratulate all of them after every battle.

After making the usual post-battle rounds (a smiling fist bump from Shiro, a half-laughing, half-sobbing really hard high five from Pidge, and a soul-crushing hug from Hunk, who was doing this to everyone because bless him, he worried about them all during battles), he reached Keith. The boy was actually smiling, and widely, with a look like he had just survived the apocalypse and knew it. It was a good look on him.

So of course Lance had to lay the worst jokes he had on him. It was just a routine part of the back-and-forth they did, and though they wouldn't admit it, especially not to each other, they both kind of liked it.

"So Keith, can you thrust your hips as well as you can thrust that sword because damn, that was a good hit."

Keith deadpanned for a second and in that moment Lance felt regret rip through him until the other boy started laughing.

"You know, that is the worst line I have ever heard from you, and trust me, that's saying something." His face was still split into a grin, though, which was rare on its own, coupled with the fact that it was because of Lance, and even though it was probably adrenaline and exhaustion and even slight delirium, Lance was going to take it as a victory anyway.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Keith, that line was great. Actually, all of my lines are. You're just jealous you don't have my skills." Keith laughed and it was an infectious sound, and Lance caught himself chuckling, too. They kept walking towards the rest of the team. "Seriously, though, that was a great hit. How did you even know what Pidge was planning?"

Keith turned pink at the ears and rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, thanks. And I don't know, we spend a lot of time together. I guess we have a lot in common."

Lance raised an eyebrow. The 5'1" girl tech genius that only spoke in sarcasm and computer, and mister edgy-with-a-motorcycle-and-no-social-skills? Yeah, okay, he could see it. "You know, I can actually picture that. I bet all you guys talk about is alien conspiracy theories, though."

Keith just stared at him for a second. "Lance, we're in space. With two aliens. On a spaceship. They're not theories if they're real, dumbass." That was uncalled for, Lance thought, but Keith was laughing and he didn't mean it and also his laughter was infectious and soon they were both cracking up until they were interrupted by the unmistakable sound of Hunk clearing his throat accusingly. And then pointing upwards accusingly. At the mistletoe above their heads.

Lance leaned forward and placed a quick kiss on Keith's nose, which was slightly scrunched up from his smiling. Keith in return just raised his eyebrows, but the smile didn't stop, so Lance didn't say anything, and together they followed the rest of the group for the team meeting.

Lance noticed Keith hadn't stopped smiling all day.

\---

Keith had known the second he did it that is was stupid, but, like with most things, he ignored that knowledge and did it anyway. He'd rammed his lion straight into the action to stop a Galra soldier from attacking the Yellow and Green Lions while their pilots were busy evacuating a planet. He'd distinctly heard Shiro's shouted warnings not to do what he was about to do, that he would be killed, but he pointedly ignored that. At least if I die, he thought, it'll be for a good reason.

He didn't die, though. Red got smashed up a bit in the collision, and he was thrown into the wall from the force, subsequently breaking his left leg and almost his left arm, too. He didn't escape the bruising and cuts all up the side of his body, though, and after being severely injured had to wait half an hour for anyone to be remotely free enough to come help him.

When help did come, it had come in the form of Lance, who besides a few cuts and bruises (including one pretty deep one on his cheek) and mussed hair, had been fine.

The tall boy climbed gingerly into the Red, avoiding shards of metal from the impact. He looked pretty worried. "Hey there, Keith, how's it going?" Keith just groaned in response from where he was on the floor. Lance sympathetically nodded and looked down to his leg, which was bent in a horribly unnatural angle. He gently made his way over to where Keith was lying. "So, obviously you can't walk."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Hey! I'm actually trying to help." Lance stooped over Keith trying to assess the situation. "Unfortunately, it seems like the only way out of this situation is if I carry you."

"Fine. I just," he sighed, "I just wanna get out of here. I feel terrible for what I did to Red. She's gonna hate me."

"I'm sure she won't, especially if she's as self-sacrificial as you are." Keith stuck his tongue out at Lance, who rolled his eyes and proceeded to pick the shorter boy up into his arms, holding him bridal-style.

"Geez, this armor's heavy. Who designed it?" Lance groaned.

"The Alteans."

"Thanks, smartass. Come on." Lance repositioned Keith's arms around his neck, trying to make sure he didn't touch the boy's heavily bruised side. "That collision really did a number on you," Lance said while stepping over rubble and metal shards. His eyebrows scrunched together and Keith might have wondered why if he wasn't so tired.

"Well, you have that gash on your face." They walked for a minute surrounded by the smell of blood and metal and fire. "How did it happen?"

Lance startled. "How did what happen?"

"The cut. On your cheek?"

"Oh, that. It's no big deal." Lance carried Keith through the opening in Red and spoke into his communicator. "Hey, Princess? We're gonna need a healing pod ready ASAP." Allura said something back to him and Lance seemed satisfied. He hoisted Keith up further in his arms. "It's not that far to the ship. Coran's keeping everything running smoothly while Allura gets a pod ready for you. Although I'm not quite sure how you're gonna get in there with a broken leg."

"I'll be fine," Keith said. "I'm just- really tired." Maybe he was delirious (probably) but he let himself rest his head in the crook of Lance's neck. "Thanks for helping me."

Lance startled a bit but let him stay there, through the battlefield and up into the castle.

\---

When the pod opened up Keith was only aware of two things immediately- warmth seeping into his frozen clothes and a burning pain in his left leg. Then he fell face-first into something.

"Whoa there, buddy. You okay?"

Or someone.

"Ugh," Keith groaned. "God, my leg hurts."

"Well, yeah," Lance laughed, releasing his grip on Keith, who immediately missed whatever warmth the other body provided.

"It's so cold in there."

"It is called cryo-freezing." Lance kept his arms on Keith's shoulders to steady him, and Keith tried to bring everything around him into focus. Apparently they'd won the battle, or at least left the planet, because they were back drifting through space. He had no idea how long it'd been since he'd been out in the healing pod.

"Was I out long?"

Lance shrugged. "Day and a half. We've been taking turns on Keith-watch every couple hours. You were pretty banged up, man."

"Am I allowed to go to my room?" he asked slowly, still trying to process everything. His leg had been broken, then very painfully shoved back into place, and there had been cold after that. Somewhere in there was his head buried in Lance's neck, but he'd think about that later when he wasn't so dead inside.

"Yeah, you should be good. You'll probably need help getting there, though. The healing pod certainly helped, but that leg still seems less than fully functional."

"Mm," Keith said by way of agreement, and let himself be once again picked up by Lance. Twice in one day. Lance wasn't ever gonna let him live this down.

As they made their way through the long hallways, Keith couldn't think of anything except sleep. Man did he need to crash. He vaguely wondered how the battle had gone, and if everyone else was okay, and suddenly remembered the gash on Lance's face. Looking up from his spot in Lance's arms, he saw that it was still there, but healing rather quickly. Probably the Altean wonder medicine.

"That cut-" he started, but Lance cut him off.

"You too? Allura won't stop worrying about it. It's just a cut. I'm fine. My little nieces and nephews have given me much worse injuries." His face shifted from frustration to nostalgia, and he looked down at Keith. "I'll be fine. I just got hit by a Galra bot. Don't worry about me, worry about yourself. You looked horrible by the time we got you back in here. Allura and Coran were both rushing around as fast as possible to make sure it didn't get infected or break even worse."

"It's fine now." At the skeptical look Lance gave him he rolled his eyes. "It will be. Is everyone else okay?"

"Yeah, thanks to you."

"Huh?"

"You probably saved Hunk and Pidge's lives back there. It was a dumb move, but at least no one died."

"Oh." They continued to walk in silence for a few minutes, the only sounds Lance's footsteps on the ground and the low hum of the castle in the background. Keith closed his eyes and let himself drift off again. Sleep. He needed sleep.

Sleep was interrupted by Lance turning a corner and a relieved noise from Pidge. Keith opened his eyes and saw her sitting on the floor in front of her door with her computer in front of her.

"Keith, you're okay!" She smiled widely and looked like the world had been taken off her shoulders. He'd make sure to apologize for that later. He smiled back tiredly, and Lance gently set him down on the ground, grimacing with Pidge was Keith winced from pain in his leg.

"I'm fine," he said to no one in particular, even though he was wobbling back and forth. He stumbled down the long hallway with a nervous Lance hovering behind him until he got close enough that his automatic door opened. He turned back to the other boy, and noticed the small green sprig just above them. "Thanks, Lance. You really helped me out back there." In his sleep-deprived delirium he pressed a kiss to the side of the wide-eyed boy's mouth, who looked to ceiling and smiled in understanding.

"You missed," he said, and was he really that tired, or did Lance's voice sound fond? Another thought he filed in the "think about it later" section. "Goodnight, Keith."

"Night, Lance." The door closed between them and Lance turned around to see Pidge staring, her head cocked to the side and her eyebrows raised.

"It's your turn on Keith-watch, now. Make sure he doesn't stumble out of his room in the middle of the night, okay?"

"Um, okay?"

\---

"Move over, Keith, I need the icing."

"It's frosting, Lance."

"No one cares, Hunk."

Keith doesn't remember whose idea it was to make Christmas cookies but it probably wasn't a good one. Hunk was currently policing Keith and Lance, who were each attempting to decorate cookies the fastest while the rest of the team sat at the dining table watching the three make a massive mess in the kitchen.

"You guys are so bad at this. Keith, your cookies are a wreck," Hunk said, and Lance snickered.

"Looks like I'm better at something than perfect pilot Keith is, huh?"

"You used way too much frosting, Lance," Hunk chastised, and Lance poured at him. "You're gonna give someone a heart attack, man. Probably yourself with the way you've been eating those."

"They're delicious, Hunk. You should appreciate how much I love your baking."

Keith shrugged. "Lance is right, for once." He laughed through an elbow in his side. "I didn't think alien berry goop cookies would be so good."

"Hear, hear!" Pidge shouted from the other room, and Hunk gave a bow.

"It's just what I do."

The three continued to frost cookies while Shiro discussed battle plans with Allura and Coran, his hands linked with the former, Pidge sitting on the table by them still trying unsuccessfully to make a proper paper snowflake. The kitchen was warm and covered in frosting and flour, and the chatter in the background gave Keith the distinct feeling of family, or at least what he thought was family.

"Hey, Keith, let me try that cookie."

Including the holiday bickering.

"Lance, I'm eating this cookie. I just took a bite from it."

"Pssh, like that matters. We're all a team, here! Plus, the Mythbusters proved double-dipping doesn't spread germs."

"That isn't even the same thing, Lance." They continued to bicker and struggle for the cookie (which is totally Keith's and Lance can find a different one) when Pidge's voice cuts through the quiet.

"Will y'all stop bickering? You two have swapped enough spit in the last week, anyway."

"Katie!" Shiro shouts, and Pidge clamps her hand over her mouth, eyes wide. Lance has turned bright red and Hunk is staring at the other two boys concernedly, and Coran and Allura both look a mixture between confused and alarmed.

And Keith just starts laughing. He has no idea why, but the entire situation is hilarious to him. Pidge looks afraid for her life and like she's regretting everything she's done since birth and Shiro's giving her a look that only a disappointed father would give, and they're standing in a frosting-covered kitchen on a spaceship in space with two aliens, on a mission to save the universe wth a bunch of robot lions. It's hilarious, and he can't help himself. He laughs so hard he leans back on the wall and slumps towards the ground. He can't breathe, but Shiro's cracking a smile and then so is Hunk and soon everyone's just laughing even though no one's quite sure why. Lance has joined Keith slumped on the ground in the doorway and for once looks completely and totally at home. He smiles at Keith and they both just fall backwards and start laughing again.

When Keith can finally breathe again he looks over at Lance, who's grinning genuinely and glancing upward. Of course there's mistletoe above them, Keith thinks, and rolls his eyes at Lance, who proceeds to place a peck on his forehead. Lance is still smiling and he still looks really cute even covered in cookie dough and Keith doesn't want to continue down that train of thought so he just looks back towards the table, where Pidge breathes a sigh of relief, and laughs again.

"So this is what a family Christmas is like, huh?" Keith asks.

"Yup," says Lance, snorting as Shiro glares disapprovingly at Pidge, who squeaks and runs out of the room. "Never a dull moment."

\---

After a run-of-the-mill battle everyone in Team Voltron's spirits had been down, and being the sunshine of the team that he was Lance decided that what everyone needed was a good Christmas party. Because it was in space with limited supplies for Christmas-partying, it had pretty much been just listening to Pidge's cheesy Christmas music (she seemed to never run out of it) and drinking the alien equivalent to eggnog, but it had been enough to tired everyone out, especially after the long battle. One more robot taken down and one more planet freed was just a tiny step closer to their goal but it still felt like a good one to Lance.

Most of the team had at least made it back to their rooms before crashing, including Lance, who wished he'd stayed asleep all night instead of waking up at what felt like two am, knowing he'd have to practice tomorrow. He groaned and got out of bed, wandering towards the commons to sit in front of the Christmas tree. Whenever he couldn't sleep back home around Christmas time he'd watch the twinkling lights until he got drowsy again, and he hoped it would still work now.

Lance yawned and padded down the hallway into the room, where he blinked to adjust his eyes, and saw something he didn't expect. Keith had apparently never made it back to his room during the "party" last night and was asleep on the couch, his face looking angelic in his slumber.

Suddenly feelings Lance had been pushing back for months clawed up his throat and he just stood there for a second, staring. Keith, for once in his life, didn't look at all prepared for a fight. He was in pajamas sprawled out over the couch, bathed in the soft light of the Christmas tree. He looked peaceful, and he looked beautiful.

Had he really never had a Christmas with his family before? Lance knew he was an orphan but it still came as kind of a shock. Keith had never had a family, and now he did, or at least Lance thought he did. The team certainly seemed like a family, and even though they weren't anything like his crazy massive family at home, he found he loved them anyway.

A chill went up Lance's spine, and he belatedly realized how cold it was in the castle. He shouldn't have been surprised, considering it was space, after all, but he realized maybe walking down to the commons barefoot like this hadn't been such a great idea. He was about to turn back around and go to his room when he saw Keith shivering out of the corner of his eye.

He quietly crept over to the other sleeping boy and draped a nearby blanket across him, and he stirred a bit in his sleep. Lance bit back a pang of fondness, and stared up at the ceiling, where- speak of the devil- there was a tiny green plant.

Even though Keith wasn't awake Lance wasn't going to break tradition, and he didn't really want to, anyway. So he bent down and placed a gentle kiss in the boy's soft raven hair.

"I think I might love you," Lance whispered, stepping back and turning to the Christmas tree, which was still softly twinkling like all the stars around them, before slowly making his way back to his room.

\---

Allura's present for all of them comes soon- a trip to a planet completely covered in snow and ice. There are huge mountains and friendly alien animals that burrow in the ground when they land. She says she remembers going here once as a child, and thinks it's incredibly lucky that it's still a liberated planet. Besides the friendly animals and loads of ice, there's not much here; any resources it could have aren't worth the incredible power and time needed to excavate them, so the Galra probably don't seem the planet of any use.

When Allura opens the gates onto the white world below, Pidge is the first to run out, accidentally tripping and getting lodged in the snow, but she just laughs when everyone rushes to help her out.

"It used to snow all the time back home! Matt and I would each build a giant snow fort and pelt each other with snowballs until one of us gave up. He would always cheat, though," she adds, and Lance quirks an eyebrow.

"How exactly do you cheat in a snowball fight?" he says, helping pull her up.

"Iceballs," Pidge says, and shivers, a grave expression on her face. Everyone collectively decides to not to ask.

Keith is still standing at the edge of the castle, just marveling in it all. It had been forever since he'd seen snow. His parents must still have been alive. It seems like a world away from now, as he looks onto the alien planet with the pink sky and white powder covering the ground by the foot.

Allura walks up and stands next to Keith. "You seem reminiscent," she says, and he knows she is too.

"I'm thinking about my parents," he says, and she nods to show she's listening, which she always is. "I think I only saw the snow once, when I was really young. My parents were still around, alive, I mean, and I think I made a snow angel." Allura looks like she doesn't have a clue what a snow angel is but she smiles at him anyway.

"Many years ago my mother once took me here on a holiday. My father was busy ruling Altea, and my mother decided we needed some fun. She took us here and we went ice-gliding and had a picnic and we picked those Carthelius together." She gestured to the tiny white and yellow flowers poking out of the snow, and Keith nodded. "She died when I was very young, too."

Keith looked over at the princess and she looks close to crying. Silently, he pulled Allura into an awkward hug, which she returned.

"Thank you," she said quietly as they parted.

"You too," he responded, and they looked on to their giddy teammates in the distance. Shiro and Pidge were making a massive snowman while Hunk was showing Lance how to make the perfect snowball to hit Coran while he wasn't looking.

"It's hard to believe we're supposed to be saving the universe," Keith said, watching Coran shower the helpless Hunk and Lance with a dozen snowballs of his own.

Allura giggled. "Everyone needs to take a break now and then. Speaking of..." she said, and pushed Keith forward out towards the team. "Let's relax for a day. The universe can wait just a tick."

Keith smiled at her, watching as she joined Shiro and Pidge with their snowman, who was at least as tall as Pidge. He walked over the the little flowers the princess was pouring to earlier when he hit something slippery and fell forward, only to be caught by a strong pair of arms.

"Whoa, there," Lance said and grinned at him, and Keith's heart skipped a beat. Unfortunately, in their distraction, Lance also slipped on the ice, and they landed on top of each other in the snowdrift.

"Dumbass," Keith said, but it held no bite. Lance rolled over on top of him to look him in the eyes, and suddenly Keith realized how nice those eyes were, and may or may not have been leaning forward to do something incredibly stupid when he got pelted in the face with a snowball.

"That's what you get for being rude," Lance said, sticking his tongue out and laughing as he ran away from Keith, who knew he could never catch up, but tries anyway.

\---

"This mission isn't going to be easy. There are Galra forces stationed all over Trixia, and they know we're coming." Shiro looks seriously at them, and they all nod.

"We're going to station the castle near the settlements and Princess Allura will take care of getting the Trixians safely into the castle while you all distract the Galra forces with Voltron. There are about 2500 of them living in this settlement alone," Coran explains. "This is going to take several hours. Keep the Galrans distracted as long as you can, but it they notice what we're doing, split up and engage in real battle. Does everyone understand?" Once more the team nods. "Good. Princess, whenever you're ready."

"We're entering the atmosphere now," Allura says. "Please go to your lions' hangars." She takes a deep breath in, and she clenches her jaw shut. "And be safe, Paladins. If we can get all the Trixians removed to the next settlement first we can go back and defeat the Galra using the castleship's power. We'll need to be diligent."

Shiro takes a deep breath, then nods. “Let's go!"

They all make their way towards the hangars, branching off their different directions until it's just Keith and Lance left. Right before he heads off to get into Red, Keith turns towards the Blue Lion's pilot, grabbing his hand and spinning him to face Keith.

"Come back alive, Lance," Keith says, and steps forward, pressing a kiss to his cheek like lightning. Lance would normally be flustered, but instead he just squeezes Keith's hand and says, "You too," before letting him go. He never notices that there's no mistletoe above them.

\---

The battle takes hours. The distraction didn't hold up for long before the Galrans realize that it's a ploy and head for the castleship, and all the Trixians. Allura and Coran are both panicked, and Voltron splits up, Hunk and Shiro shielding the Trixians and ushering them inside the castle as fast as possible while Pidge sneaks Green into the Galra ship to dismantle their technology, Keith going in the Galra battleship and attacking from different ends to keep Pidge shielded. Miraculously, it works, and the Trixians are transported safely to the nearest settlement while Allura destroys the Galra battleship using the castle's power. After several frenzied meetings with the Trixian leaders over their destroyed town, the small aliens and the Alteans settle that they'll have to rebuild as best they can while Team Voltron's help. It takes several more hours of manual labor after that for any of the pilots to get back in the castle and see one another.

Lance docks Blue inside the castleship and strokes her side before getting out and examining his teammates. They're all a bit battered, and the lions could definitely use a polish, but they're relatively unharmed. Lance thanks whatever higher power that be for that.

Keith arrives last, docking Red in and entering the main hangar looking like death, but Lance has never been more glad to see him. Without thinking about it, he sprints over and wraps the other boy in a hug, which is immediately returned.

"Thanks for following my directions," Keith says quietly.

"You too," Lance says again.

\---

Two mornings after the battle at Trixia, Keith wakes up early. They're no longer docked at the flowery pink planet but now at a cold one, icy and mountainous. They'll be there for another day or so for maintenance and repairs, since the castle got hit pretty badly and the shields took a lot of damage. Keith doesn't mind it so much. The planet is nice.

It's fairly early in the morning here, and Keith walks out of his room slowly and silently to avoid waking anyone else up. The hallways are quiet, and he feels strangely content. He makes his way into the commons, and is suddenly greeted with some of his teammates sitting around eating food goo and making small talk quietly.

Pidge notices him first from her spot in front of the giant Christmas tree, and gives him the widest, most genuine smile he's ever seen on her. "Merry Christmas, Keith," she says, and Shiro turns around to see him too, gesturing for them to be quiet as he points at Allura, fast asleep on the couch next to him.

"Merry Christmas, Keith," Shiro says, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder. Keith has known Shiro long enough by now to know that the small smile on his face means a lot.

Hunk comes in from behind Keith. "Merry Christmas, man," he says, and Keith smiles. "Coran and I have been busy making some good food for tonight. Hopefully it'll be better-than-average goo." Pidge giggles, and Shiro grins.

"I'm sure it'll be great, Hunk," he says, with that sort of fatherly glow that Keith can only ever attribute to him.

Hunk smiles, and sits down next to Pidge. Hunk tells her stories about his family Christmases back home, and she enthusiastically replies with some of hers. Christmas at the Holt house seems wild and wonderful, Keith thinks. But here is just as good, too.

Coran comes in the room after a few minutes and Shiro gently shakes Allura awake, who sleepily listens to Coran's report that everything is fine with the castle and automatic repairs are doing well. She smiles at him drowsily, and Keith can tell she loves her surrogate father. He looks back at the princess with a fondness of a father to a daughter, and realizes that the little Altean twosome is family, too.

Lance is the last to come in the room. He silently enters and plops down next to Keith on the floor, watching their other teammates talk. "Morning," Keith says, and Lance smiles at him.

"I've been up a few hours," Lance says, with a faraway look in his eyes. "My family used to go all-out celebrating Christmas. I bet the little ones are running downstairs to open their presents about now. My poor parents aren't gonna hear the end of it for hours."

Keith chuckles. "How long does it take for them to give in?"

Lance snorts. "Usually about three hours. Some years only one. My nieces and nephews are very persistent."

Keith looks at Lance, who looks both nostalgic and happy. "I bet they miss you as much as you miss them," he says, and Lance drops his head onto Keith's shoulder.

"Maybe," he says. Keith closes his eyes and lets the moment soak in. Lance smells like cinnamon, which mixes with the pine scent of the tree and the small of Hunk and Coran's cooking. Lance's head on his shoulder feels so natural, which he never would have imagined a year ago. A little bit away Hunk and Coran are laughing while Pidge talks excitedly, and Shiro and Allura are quietly speaking about the past, and the future.

They're family.

At least, they're family until Allura commits the ultimate form of betrayal: she clears her throat and tips her head just the slightest fraction of an inch towards the ceiling, where, of course, there's a tiny sprig of mistletoe hanging. Keith's cheeks immediately redden, but he looks at Lance and thinks to himself that at least it's Christmas and there's an excuse for it.

Then he leans forward and kisses him.

It's slightly awkward because of the way they're sitting, and he's pretty sure either of them were expecting it, but it felt like everything he'd wanted that day in the snow and more. When he pulls back a second later, it looks like Lance thought the same: he's grinning from ear to ear. And that's what laughter and cheers erupt from around them, and both of them, if they weren't red before, went really red.

Lance looks at Keith with his wide smile, and to his astonishment (and slight offense) starts laughing.

"Are you seriously laughing at me?" Keith demands, but he's smiling anyway.

"Gosh, no. That was amazing. You're amazing." Lance is looking at him and God, his happiness is contagious.

"Then what?"

"Nothing? Everything? I don't know. All I know is that I've been waiting forever for that." Lance's face is red like Keith knows the tips of his ears are.

"You're such a dork."

Lance sticks his tongue out at Keith but still smiles, anyway. Keith vaguely wonders if he ever stops. "At least I'm not a jerk."

"Mm," Keith hums, looking around at their makeshift little family, engaging in excited conversation and what seems to be a betting pool around them. "Unbelievable."

"I guess they've been waiting too," Lance says slyly, and Keith elbows him in the side, and they both laugh. A couple minutes of silence pass before Lance speaks again. "Merry Christmas, Keith," he says quietly, and there's a warmth in his eyes like none he's ever seen.

"Merry Christmas, Lance," Keith says, and it is.

**Author's Note:**

> I loved writing all this Christmas fluff and I really hope you all enjoyed reading it! Please comment and tell me what you think. Happy holidays, everyone!


End file.
